


She Wears Her Heart On Her Wrist

by DeCappuccino



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Cousin Incest, F/F, First Kiss, Fluffy, Incest, Its not good, One-Sided Attraction, Soulmate AU, but its practice, slight angst, theres a bit of angst here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-08-27
Packaged: 2018-12-20 02:13:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11911086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeCappuccino/pseuds/DeCappuccino
Summary: She shook her head, waving off all of her doubts.The thought of falling in love with her cousin was strangely okay with her.But that wasn't the problem.The problem, was whether or not Callie reciprocated it.





	She Wears Her Heart On Her Wrist

**Author's Note:**

> Grammar is bad. But if that doesn't bother you, read on!
> 
> This is basically a self-indulgent Soulmate AU filled with my headcanons

Marie wasn't sure when it happened.

She noticed it one afternoon while having her usual get-together with her cousin. She had turned her hand to pull a cookie off the plate when it's bright color caught her eye.

In the beginning, her first reaction was to panic.

It wasn't unusual to see the freckles upon freckles of hearts scattered on Callie's legs, or shoulders. The colors ranging from orange, to darkened purple. It was almost comical how much Callie had in just the years she'd live in inkopolis.

So really, the sight of them aren't new.

But when a heart had made its appearance on her own skin, she grew concerned. _That_ was definitely a new sight. 

The concept of falling in love was always a strange phenomenon of nature to her. To be honest, she found it meaningless that a mark on her own body determined who she fell in love with. It was why she guarded her heart so thoroughly.

But she wasn't one to judge a book by it's cover. Not until she's heard the full story at least. And Cap'n Cuttlefish was more than happy to comply.

Since the beginning of the Squid race (perhaps even in the age of the Ancients), their species obtained a marking in the shape of a small heart. The color matched the ink of the person who had stolen their attention (most squids had a default color by birth). The trick was, if their supposed partner didn't return their color, that implied they weren't meant to be soulmates.

Her grandfather had specified that it wasn't meant to pull two squids together on the first try - since there are some complications to the mechanics. Some squids could be hiding their true colors. Like that one time her cousin fancied what seemed like an orange inkling boy, but she was marked by an odd shade of neon yellow.

(For the record, Marie almost broke out laughing at that)

Her own default color by birth, was a pale green that matched nicely with grey. She found the hue reflective to her personality, so she gladly accepted it without complaint. And, from what she had learned through years of companionship, Callie's was a dazzling shade of pink.

And it was because of this, Marie always thought of Callie whenever she saw pink.

Even more so, when she discovered it on her wrist.

"What is it?" Callie's voice cut through her hazy jumble of thoughts. She looked up to find her cousin chewing on a chocolate chip cookie. "Sompfin' happen?"

Marie shook her head, trying to shoo away her reeling ideas in favor of donning her usual impassive expression. "No, it's nothing." She said, concealing her hand underneath the table, "How's that cookie?"

Marie watched her cousin's face brighten, beginning her tangent on the pastry. And she listened, letting Callie's rant about how the inner workings of the perfect cookie distract her earlier thoughts. It twisted them around to the point where Marie just happened to think- _Was Callie's smile sweeter today? Her laugh is so soft and cute._ She found herself admiring the girl across from her with more interest everday.

This made her realize her gradual attraction that she somehow gained for her cousin. It began with minor things, like the endearing little quirks Callie possessed – to her adorable laugh, and sweet personality. It drove her crazy, of course. In both good ways and bad.

Marie flickered her eyes towards the purple beanie that sat on her head, embellished with a little golden star. It reminded her of her days as agent 1 and 2, when life was simpler. Callie looked like she hadn't aged a day, but seemed so much more wiser than that energetic 15-year old back in Octo Valley.

She smiled at the memory, absentmindedly reaching out to brush a few stray crumbs off the corner of the girl's mouth. At that same moment, Callie jolted forward, resulting in Marie dragging her thumb across her lips.

The stream of words she had been saying cut off as she made eye contact with her cousin. Her face flourishing with her ink color.

And for whatever reason, it filled Marie's chest with butterflies.

Through her daze, she could tell this gathered a lot of attention from the inklings outside their glass window. Whispering about how she looked almost like a doting lover. She felt the tips of her ears burn, quickly retracting her hand. She looked away from Callie's flustered toothy smile with a huff.

And from then on, everything continued on as normal for the rest of the evening; or rather, Marie spent it zoning in and out of her diurnal tasks.

For the 19 years she's lived on this planet, _never_ had she fallen. It was almost absurd just how much she thought of it in the span of just a few hours. (Oh who was she kidding, she was just thinking of Callie the entire time).

She stopped to consider not just _how_ to tell her (if she ever decided to), but also how to cover the mark on her skin. Make-up could only work for so long before she slipped up somewhere.

She shook her head, waving off all of her doubts.

The thought of falling in love with her cousin was strangely okay with her.

But that wasn't the problem.

The problem was whether or not Callie reciprocated it.

...

The green inkling had contemplated if devising a plan would be suitable in a situation like this. Its been a few weeks and nothing's changed. Though, it's not like Marie had attempted anything, anyways.

As per norm, Callie usually would've told her if she recieved another soul mark anywhere on her skin.

They were close enough to share intricate details of their (non)existent love lives with each other.

But despite the range of colors, Marie had never seen any shade of green in her collection.

Perhaps, the chance of seeing it with her own eyes was higher than waiting for Callie to present it to her.

The green inkling pinked slightly. The thought of finding her own of color on her cousins body made her feel... abnormally happy.

...

It was after another day flew by that Marie began to notice subtle changes.

The first clue began with Callie's less than enthusiastic performance during newscast.

Lately, she looked nervous enough just being around Marie in general. Let alone engage in the common scripted banter in front of an entire city. Her attention was also much harder to gain than usual. The wringing of her hands during what seemed like a casual conversation between the two, made her come off as extremely jittery.

Callie occasionally lost her nerve whenever she had something in particular to discuss with her younger cousin. (Though, they're generally the same age; Callie was only older by a week anyways)

Usually, Marie would've waited for her to gain enough courage, rather than to outright confront her with whatever was troubling her. However, the younger inkling couldn't find it in herself to wait this time.

So, she set up a time to interrogate her.

"Hey Cal." She leaned against the door of their shared bedroom one lazy afternoon. They had shared a bed as kids; there was no reason to stop now. "You doin' okay?"

"Hm?" Callie looked up from her phone. "What d'ya mean?"

"You know what I mean," Marie kept her tone neutral, "Recently you've been as nervous as that one time you borrowed my shirt, but then lost it and couldn't tell me."

As if to prove her cousin's point, the pink inkling let out an unconvincing laugh. "What? Pshhh! Nothing's wrong Marie! I'm fine!"

Said squid raised an eyebrow at the display. She pursed her lips, making it seem like she was deep in thought. "Hmmm, if I could guess... Did you fall for someone again?"

As soon as those words left her lips, Callie unconsciously began rubbing her wrist.

"No...?"

"That sounded more like a question there."

" _No_ ," She repeated with a pause when Marie gave her an unconvinced stare. She hesitated at the look, playing with her bottom lip with her fang. "Well I mean-... sort of?"

This piqued Marie's interest. "What do you mean, 'sort of'?"

"Like," Callie looked uncomfortable, "Can you have platonic soulmates?"

For some reason, that question stung.

"I... think Gramps mentioned it being a different marking than a heart... like a star or something."

"Ah, I see..."

They stayed quiet. Marie trying to figure out how to take this, while Callie began sweating bullets.

"Why..? Do you have a potential best friend candidate?" Marie said, and Callie fumbled around with her words to respond.

"No! I love them... _romantically_ but-..."

Marie found herself leaning forward a bit, "But?"

"Would they?"

"Would they what?" Marie feigned.

A distressed look, "Love me romantically, I mean." She clarified.

"Callie," Marie sighed. "This is like, what... the 18th you've gotten? Even if it doesn't work out, you shouldn't get so caught up in the rejection. I'm sure you'll find someone better."

Callie only gave a silent nod of agreement.

Marie clenched her fists, regretting her choice of words. She wasn't sure how she expected this conversation to end, but her cousin looked like she was about to cry. Why'd she have to run her mouth off like that? All she wanted to do now is soothe that pained expression.

"This time is different though," Callie murmured finally, snapping Marie out of her musings. The girl hesistated, an internal debate flickering in her eyes.

Slowly, she pulled back her sleeve, revealing a tiny green mark. She giggled weakly, blinking away tears, "What's the likelyhood of you returning this?"

While she initially hadn't expected the conversation to take this direction, she didn't miss a beat. Marie strided towards her, face set with determination.

She was confident now that all her suspicions were confirmed. Her eyes attempted to catch her cousin's, but the pink inkling apparently had other interesting things to look at.

When she was just inches away from Callie, she leaned down to eye level. The younger inkling gently dragged her thumb across her cheek, turning her head and offering a small, reassuring smile.

Callie looked confused, lost, and - to Marie's displeasure - _heartbroken_. Like she was just waiting for Marie to throw her looks of disgust.

"Hey," she cajoled softly instead, moving her fingers to wipe her watering eyes. She felt Callie sniffle, and she smiled bit. She was such a crybaby sometimes. "How long?"

"Um...Since we were Agent's..?"

Marie started, her eyes wide. "Wait, what! Really?" She almost gasped, "How— _Why_ did you hide it for so long...?"

"It wasn't hard..." she shrugged, "I figured since I was with you all the time, I didn't really need to tell you."

"Then what's with the sudden change?"

"I uh..." Callie flushed a shade of crimson. She grabbed her tentacles to hide her face; It was another cute quirk she possessed when she was overtly embarrassed. "...Saw Agent 4 with a... uhm... while we we're fighting that one time..."

Marie's thoughts clicked into place, and she suppressed a grin, "...And you got jealous?"

Callie responded with ducking her head, a muffled 'yes' slipping through her fingers.

Marie took a moment to fully recap the situation. Callie had held feelings for her since their days as Agents — Well they _still_  are Agents, just less active.

She also grew jealous of Agent 4 at one point, because apparently the other squid had held feelings for Marie. She paused at another thought. That also explained why her cousin was so aggressive during the last half of their battle.

It was only after piecing everything together, that Marie could deduce Callie's reasoning behind her large collection of hearts. It was just to distract herself from this inevitable outcome. 

The charger-user clenched her fist. Feeling stupid that she hadn't noticed anything until Callie began slipping. She moved to press a kiss to her cousins forehead as comfort for not just Callie, but for herself too. She was still reeling at the thought of her hiding this for so long.

Just seeing Callie's forlorn expression strengthened her resolve for what she was about to do next. With a deep breath, she rolled up her sleeve to reveal her own mark.

When Callie eyes flickered down and caught a glimpse of the pink underneath the folds of cloth, her eyes grew wide.

The green inkling watched with amusement as Callie's jaw dropped out of sheer disbelief. "Y-You're-"

Marie leaned down in the middle of her sentence. Eyes half-lidded as she pressed the faintest shadow of a kiss to her cousin's lips. The gesture had Callie's face set on fire before Marie even pulled away.

"I don't think your soulmate will reject you this time." Her tone softened, gently cupping the other girls face.

Callie babbled in shock, the tears that gathered in her eyes were streaming now. Marie was suddenly knocked back onto the soft cushions of their matress. Not fully registering the weight pressed against her chest.

"Maaarrriieee...!" Callie whimpered, her face buried in her cousin's neck as she bawled. "I was so scareeed!!"

"Woah, hey!" Marie sighed, relieved that the tears staining her shirt were one of joy. "Me too. I didn't know you shared these feelings until now, y'know."

Callie gave a watery, bubbly laugh. The younger squid could feel the occasional hiccup travel through Callie's body.

"...You're such a baby, Cal," Marie muttered, running her hands up and down her back soothingly. "Even if I didn't return your feelings, you should've known nothing would change between us."

"I know," Callie sniffled, her grip tightening, "But I got scared, what if you _had_ -"

She was cut off as Marie lifted her head, placing another kiss on the corner of her lips. "Then don't worry about it anymore. Everything turned out fine in the end, right?"

Callie stayed still for a moment. She felt like the heat radiating off her cheeks was hot enough to rival the sun. Marie just grinned with amusement. _Guess I did pretty well for my first kiss—_

"I love you."

"—Huh?!" Marie's breath hitched, heat crawling up her neck at the words. She felt warmth all over.

Those words were the same from when they were little... but now she knew it meant much, much more. 

"Aww I made you blush!" Callie laughed, pressing butterflies all over, "I love you, I love you, I love you! I love you!"

"Callie..." Marie pinked uncharacteristically under the affections, and the roller user beamed. "I love you, too."


End file.
